2.

1 Introduction
The literature review part of this research starts with the concept of total quality management
and employee empowerment. After that critical discussions of the different theories relating to
this context have been added such as Kanter's, Kaizen, Lean Production and Employee
Empowerment Wheel, followed by the discussion on the different dimensions of total quality
management such as process thinking, customer satisfaction, and total employee commitment
and so on. The chapter ends with adding critical arguments and opinions of the previous
researchers regarding the impact of total quality management on employee empowerment.

2.2 Employee Empowerment

According to Greasley et al. (2005); Klidas et al (2007); Pelit et al (2011), employee
empowerment refers to providing the employees working inside an organisation a certain level
of autonomy and ownership over the work they are performing with the view to expanding the
organisational capability to increase efficiency. Slightly different opinions have been provided
on the issue of employee empowerment but more or less most of the definitions of employee
empowerment point towards the same direction and that are giving the employees more power
and autonomy to perform their responsibilities. In relation to the previous statement, Fernandez
and Modogazieb (2013) found that giving the employees with a certain level of autonomy
contributes towards increasing the efficiency of the employees and decision-making is
comparatively faster. Elnaga & Imran’s (2014) findings match with Fernandez and
Modogazieb as they suggested giving employees more autonomy overwork in order to increase
job satisfaction.

2.3 Theories Related to Employee Empowerment

2.3.1 Kanter’s Theory
Davies, Laschinger, & Andrusyszyn, (2006); Laschinger (2008); Boudrias, (2009) stated that
Kanter’s theory of structural empowerment focuses more on the organisational aspect rather
than individual qualities or capabilities and Kanter thinks that the power that employees or
leaders have switched on and off by the capability of using resources to perform a task. Gill et
al. (2011) agreed with the previous statement and added that Kanter’s theory presented that the
power that a leader holds increases when the power is shared and the collaborative input from
the employees using the power will ultimately improve a firm’s capability to perform to
industry standard. The theory presented by Kanter has been widely used in many organisations
to improve employee engagement. However, both positive and negative results have been
observed. Men & Stacks (2013) findings were to some extent similar to the previous two
statements as they referred that the application of Kanter’s theory on an organisation
significantly improves the employee commitment and the core supporting factor that facilitated
employee engagement was the balanced distribution of ownership and sound corporate culture.
Another study by Hanaysha & Tahir (2016) found that employee empowerment through
increasing autonomy over work results in disarrayed work when the work responsibilities are
not designed properly. Kim, Lee, & Jang (2017) also mentioned something similar by stating
that different results have been observed from time to time but the basic teaching of Kanter’s
theory is widely accepted. Al Manhawy (2013) added that Kanter’s theory allows the
organisation enabling enough flexibility and also leads employees towards creativity at the
same time to ensure employee empowerment to a large extent.
2.3.2 Employee Empowerment Wheel
According to Zhang and Bartol (2010); Humborstad & Perry (2011) employee empowerment
wheel is a tool to assess the risks associated with empowering employees in order to make
informed and cautious decision to make employee empowerment effective and less. This
method is particularly effective when the decisions made by employees have a widespread
result throughout the organisation. This method of monitoring and planning employee
empowerment decision has been found effective by Namasivayam, Guchait, & Lei, (2014) as
they found that a pre-set criterion of empowering the employees enable business organisations
to reduce the negative impact of wrong decisions and when this method is applied, the
frequency of mistakes occurred reduces by 10%. A further study by Ukil (2016) found that
employee empowerment is more effective when managers use an employee empowerment
wheel to assess the impact of employee empowerment and then take systematic decision to
increase autonomy over work. However, Idris See & Coughlan (2018) stated that the extent to
which employee empowerment wheel contribute to increase employee engagement and reduce
the frequency of mistake is debatable as there is no universally accepted systematic approach
to implement this theory. Baird & Munir (2018) also supported the previous view by stating
that how an employee empowerment wheel should be designed and implemented varies from
industry to industry-making it particularly complex to implement. A pre-determined plan to
assess the impact of employment decisions can help managers to effectively design and
implement employee empowerment wheel.

2.4 Factors Affecting Employee Empowerment

The impact of employee empowerment reaches the whole organisation and therefore,
understanding the factors that affect employee empowerment requires a clear understanding to
proceed on working with employee empowerment. In this part of the literature review, these
factors will be reviewed using proper literature sources.
2.4.1 Autonomy and Freedom
A study by Greasley et al. (2005) on 165 people working in different organisations concluded
that employees think the shift of power that ensures autonomy over work and freedom is the
fundamental of employee empowerment. Moye & Henkin (2006), Klidas, Den Berg, &
Wilderom (2007) observed the same result. Sadikoglu & Zehir’s (2010) added to this and
opined employee empowerment extends this as the proposed that there are three fundamentals
of employee empowerment and they are autonomy, self-control, and growth of responsibilities.
But Pelit, Öztürk, & Arslantürk (2011) stated that autonomy over work and growth of
responsibility might end up negatively if it takes place organisation wide in a short time. Here
we can see that opinions have arisen to reduce autonomy, but this doesn’t completely prohibit
employee empowerment through autonomy rather this calls for a slow approach to employee
empowerment.
2.4.2 Flexibility
According to Boudrias et al. (2009); Clark et al (2009); Fernandez and Modogazieb (2013)
employee empowerment effectiveness reaches the peak only when employees have flexibility
over the responsibilities they are assigned with. This means that they require flexible work
requirement that matches the degree of authority they are given. Elnaga & Imran (2014) also
suggested making the work responsibility flexible if the employer wants employee
empowerment to yield positive results. The suggestions go against Lam, O’Donnell, &
Robertson’s (2015) suggestion as they suggested making flexibility as a lesser priority and
focusing on improving the growth of responsibility and autonomy. However, they did not
suggest making responsibilities totally inflexible. Collaborative understanding from the
suggestions brings to the understanding that flexibility is a priority for the employees and to
make employee empowerment effective but the approach should be subtle and systematic.
2.4.3 Training and Development
A study by Zhang & Bartol (2010) on 64 participants working in business organisations found
that 87% of employees prefer regular training for development and better implementation
employee empowerment plan. Gill et al. (2011) stated something similar stating that continuous
training and development is regarded as a top priority by employees to ensure that they can
perform their new job roles when new assignments are assigned through empowerment.
Hanaysha & Tahir (2016) also suggested similar stating that employee empowerment requires
on-time training for best possible effectiveness. When these scholars focus on training there
are further opinions on whether on the job training of formal training is more appropriate for
this. Regarding the previous statements, Muralidhar et al. (2016) argued that on the job training
is more preferable for employee empowerment where Becker & Bish (2017) think that formal
training sessions help employee empowerment. Whatever the appropriate method is, at one
point every researcher agreed and that is, employee empowerment requires that employees are
trained properly.
2.4.4 Compensation, Motivation, Work Environment, and Culture
According to Ergeneli, Ari, & Metin (2007) employee empowerment is closely related with
culture and compensation provided, Dickson & Lorenz (2009) think it is motivation and work
environment that matter most where Carter (2009) think that it is motivation, compensation,
and culture, and Choong & Lau (2011) stated that compensation, motivation, work
environment, culture, and autonomy over work are equally important to employees. Pieces of
evidence from years of research are available to back up each of the elements discussed above.
Based on the organisational situation employees are working in the need for different elements
can be different. For example, in the research of Abadi & Chegini (2013), on a bank, the
important element for better job satisfaction was corporate culture development whereas
Kumar’s (2014) on a different type of organisation suggested that employees need
compensation and motivation for job satisfaction. Based on the need, employees have to be
provided with the right employee empowerment facilitating element that is required by the
situation.

2.5 Total Quality Management

According to Sadikoglu & Zehir (2010); Talib et al (2011); Madu (2012), total quality
management is a management system where the organisation is run on the core principle that
each and every employee and officer working in that organisation should be highly committed
to delivering high-quality performance and maintain high work standard in all the functional
departments and organisational aspects. The basic idea behind TQM tends to the same but
slightly different opinions have arisen from time to time. The definition provided by Asif et al.
(2013) differs from the previous as they stated that total quality management is an organisation-
wide approach to improve quality that will successfully meet the expectations of the customers
and exceed them. More diverse opinion has been provided by others. Maintaining consistency
with the previous definition Akgün et al. (2014) suggested that TQM is an approach to ensure
quality for a long-term basis and ensuring this quality improvement in all aspects of an
organisation. Different opinions have been provided to define TQM but all the scholars agree
in one point that total quality management focuses on quality improvement.

2.6 Theories Related Total Quality Management

There has been a wide range of development in the field of TQM and employee empowerment
since the ideas were coined and many scholars have presented their ideas and theories in these
fields. In this part of the literature review, different theories related to TQM will be reviewed.
2.6.2 Kaizen Theory
Moye & Henkin (2006); Baird & Wang (2009); Elnaga & Imran (2014) stated that Kaizen
theory focuses at making small incremental changes in the work process of an organisation
with the view to improve the quality of the product and service by looking at the overall process
and selecting the best route to finish the task and this process also helps organisations to
minimise waste production. This theory has received positive and negative criticism for its
benefits and pitfalls. The statement made by Appelbaum et al. (2015) found something similar
that the application of this theory is particularly effective for waste reduction, inventory waste
reduction, and managing time. Taking ideas from the previous statements Sok & O'Cass (2015)
found the application of theory to be effective in improving space utilisation and improving
product quality. However, Hirzel, Leyer, & Moormann (2017) found that applying this theory
makes an organisation resistant to change; Begzadeh & Nedaei (2017) stated that there is a lack
of a proper procedure that can be applied to implement this theory properly. Proper
implementation of this theory on a small scale can lead to an increase in the quality of produced
goods and services when the pitfalls are checked systematically. In relation with the previous
two opinions, Al Manhawy (2013) opined that Kaizen theory brings consistency in employee
performance leaving the opportunity for continuous training and development to make the
employees able to leave their views freely.
2.6.2 Lean Production Theory
According to Conney (2002); Smalley (2004); Shah & Ward (2007) lean production is a widely
used process that is used in numerous manufacturing plants and offices with the aim to deliver
higher quality products and services at a lower cost. Biswas & Sarker (2008) stated the same
by mentioning that lean production as a method to determine what value is, sequentially
performing the jobs that create the value and delivering the service required by performing the
tasks when needed. Slomp, Bokhorts, & Jumps (2009) supported performing jobs in such
manner as doing so enables an organisation to perform more with less input and reduce human
effort in attaining a job which ultimately increases organisational efficiency and increases
employee engagement. There are advantages and disadvantages to using this theory. Using a
lean production system, the space required to produce a product is minimised and no space is
misused or wasted Chen and Meng, 2010; Sacks, Radosavljevic, & Barak, 2010). Alves, Dinis-
Carvalho, & Sousa (2012) in their study on 45 manufacturing plants found that lean production
system enables organisations to deliver products and service with less cost which ultimately
increases customer satisfaction and job satisfaction, and increases product quality. However,
Dominici & Palumbo (2013) found that there is little room for error when using a lean
production system which makes it particularly difficult to implement. Cautious implementation
of a lean production system for small production factories can be effective for total quality
management.

2.7 Dimensions or Issues in Total Quality Management

Al Manhawy (2013) stated that there are several dimensions of total quality management that
have been developed from organisational practice. Jiménez-Jiménez et al. (2015) agree with
this as they stated that TQM is a broad subject that has been discussed from different points of
view. In this section of the literature review, different dimensions of total quality management
will be reviewed using appropriate literature.
2.7.1 Process Thinking
Allen & Thomas (2011); Koskinen, (2012); Cronemyr & Danielsson (2013) stated that Process
thinking is regarded as a base part of total quality management as total quality management
focuses on collecting input from a variety of sources and making organisation wide effort to
make the raw material into finished products while organising the whole process in a series of
sequential steps. Schmiedel, Vom Brocke, & Recker (2014) attempted to verify the
effectiveness of process thinking and concluded that this approach enables business
organisations to sequentially divide the works to be done which eliminates the possibility of
error and as the process is monitored continuously, remedial steps can be immediately taken.
Vom Brocke, Zelt, & Schmiedel (2016) supported this as they found that process thinking
enables business managers to think of the individual parts of a process and plan accordingly
which increases organisational efficiency. However, Pradabwong et al. (2017) found that
process thinking is not applicable for organisations that are looking for reducing human
resource cost as process management requires more personnel to be employed for proper
execution. This means that organisations with adequate resources to develop and implement
step by step process should employ process thinking to ensure quality.
2.7.2 Customer Satisfaction
Watson et al (2003); Dahlgaard et al (2008) defined TQM as a long-term process that works
with the view to attain customer satisfaction and gain the loyalty of the customers in the
process. Topalović’s (2015) also emphasised on customer satisfaction as the goal of TQM as
he stated that the long-term viability of a business organisation largely depends on how
effective an organisation is in meeting customer expectations through proper use of TQM. Both
findings agree that TQM aims at attaining long-term customer satisfaction through overall
quality development. In respect to this Sumarjan & Arendt (2010), found from their study in
Malaysian hotels that using TQM as a quality enhancement factor manager can motivate the
employees to perform better that can lead to increased customer satisfaction. However, Al
Manhaway (2013), though TQM can ensure customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction
should be the goal of TQM business organisations should understamd that customers will leave
if they get a better option and thus, organisations should also focus as outsmarting the
competitors through TQM. Topalović’s (2015) findings also support this as he found that
though total quality management may lead to customer satisfaction there are other factors that
influence this such as proximity of service, social influence, and after-sales service. This points
to the fact that total quality management activities focused on customer satisfaction should be
synchronised with other factors of customer satisfaction.
2.7.3 Total Employee Commitment
Pheng and Jasmine (2004); Joiner (2007); Clark et al (2009) found that if there is any lack in
the commitment of the top management and the employee of an organisation then TQM will
fail to bring out any positive result and thus, they emphasised on focusing on employee
commitment. This is in harmony with the findings of Hunjira et al. (2010) as they suggested
that proper implementation of TQM enables managers to motivate employees by bringing job
satisfaction and high morale which ultimately leads to improved customer satisfaction and
failure to ensure employee commitment will result in failure of TQM. Therefore many
advocates of TQM have emphasised on ensuring employee commitment. A well-planned TQM
always ensures employee satisfaction. In support of this Setó-Pamies (2012) stated that overall
employee commitment helps managers to design business processes more effectively that
enables better customer satisfaction, and this can be achieved by implementing TQM.
However, Lam, O'Donnell, & Robertson (2015) found that businesses often put more pressure
on the employees in order to maintain quality which sometimes leads to extreme workload and
the result of this is not good for employee satisfaction in the long run. This is why TQM
approaches should focus on designing job responsibilities in such a way that assesses employee
capability and matches their work standard.
2.7.4 Strategic Thinking
Strategic thinking has been defined as systematically planning for gaining favourable future
results in a challenging situation by applying intelligence and experience by Hoetker (2007),
Ambrosini & Bowman (2009). Strategic thinking has a direct connection with TQM. Adding
to the previous definition of Sadikoglu & Zehir (2010), total quality management is only
effective when it is backed by a proper strategic plan from the top management. Talib, Rahman,
and Azam (2011) also provided the same opinion stating that strategic thinking drives the
success of total quality management. In relation with the indication made by a study by Akgün
et al. (2014) indicates that when a business organisation aims at attaining financial goals
through total quality management it is essential that the plan is supported by strategic thinking.
Many researchers have stated that TQM and strategic thinking is not two separate things rather
they are the same thing that works for the same goal. Kantardijeva (2015) stated that
organisational strategic planning devises the policies that set out the framework to follow to
reach the organisational goals where TQM is the process that is followed to reach the goals.
This brings to the understanding that TQM and strategic thinking are a part of the same goal.
2.7.5 Integrated System and Continuous Improvement
According to Dahlgaard, Khanji & Kristensen (2008); Setó-Pamies (2012); Asif et al. (2013),
total quality management brings the total internal processes of an organisation together in order
to bring out best quality products and services and ensure continuous improvement. Jiménez-
Jiménez et al. (2015) agreed with this as they stated that TQM is an approach to continuous
improvement where all the systems in an organisation work together in order to improve the
quality of the business processes and produced goods and services. These studies discuss the
same thing but there are other studies where the link has been further explained. However,
Obeidat et al. (2016) found in a study on 25 organisations that use a total quality management
system have more efficient internal system integration than the organisations that do not and,
in the integration, IT played a mediating role as a connection to experience and business
intelligence. Like the previous study, another study by Psomas & Jaca (2016) brought out the
result that 87% people of 231 participants in a survey, working in different business
organisations think that TQM is the primary management approach to ensure continuous
improvement. However, some researchers found that system integration and continuous
improvement are obtained through process improvement where others tend to think that this is
a result of a heightened level of employee participation. However, all the studies agree on the
fact that TQM is an effective management approach for an integrated system and continuous
improvement.
2.7.6 Decisions Based on Fact
According to Pheng & Jasmine (2004), total quality management is a realistic management
approach where the managers of an organisation make decisions only based on facts. Moye &
Hankin (2006); Joiner (2007) agree with this as they stated that managers using TQM rely on
facts to make an organisational decision. Slomp et al (2009) provided similar evidence in
support of this as their study on lean production system found that while trying to reduce costs
and make lean production effective managers and leaders try to integrate systems and use facts
derived from total quality management experience. However, Sumarjan & Arendt (2010), in
their study on a series of hotels discussed that though managers try to employ a total quality
management approach to ensure quality rather than making all the decisions from facts
managers sometimes have to make decisions from experience or judgment to deal with critical
situations. This outlines that TQM is a fact-based approach but for providing a solution to
critical problems, managers may need to make decisions based on judgment or experience.
2.7.7 Effective Communication
According to Hoetker (2007); Ambrosini & Bowman (2009), total quality management takes
place organisation wide which automatically puts emphasis on improving interdepartmental
communication. Baird & Wang (2010) findings verify the previous statement as in their study
on 125 employees working in different functional departments that, as TQM is an approach to
improve quality organisation wide, managers frequently ask questions about different
improvements and interdepartmental communication takes place more often as a result of an
aggregated effort for improvement. The findings of Wang et al (2012) go along with this as
their observation points out that employees working in organisations that practices TQM have
a better interpersonal relationship as a result of frequent communication and this frequent
communication primarily takes place for quality ensuring. However, Garengo & Biazzo (2013)
found that communication regarding TQM implementation mainly takes place for ensuring
quality improvement which doesn’t have much impact on improving interpersonal
communication, but it has a positive impact on interdepartmental communication. A
summative assessment of the studies reflects that TQM has a positive impact on improving
internal communication.

2.7 Impact of Employee Empowerment on Total Quality Management

Overview (2001) stated that employees that have more access to information and support from
the management as a result of TQM are more satisfied with their jobs. In relation with the
previous comment, Kaynak (2003) found that an increased level of availability of information
and access to opportunity arises from the proper implementation of employee empowerment
and when that happens, it is observed that employees are more inclined to perform their jobs
with self-motivation. Maintaining consistency with the previous findings the study conducted
by O’Brien, (2011) shows that the different important elements for total quality management
such as total employee commitment, strategic thinking, effective communication, and
integrated development are employee centric that allows convenient environment for the
employees working inside the organisation and ultimately leads to the opportunity for
expressing their own ideas and concepts.
Pelit et al (2011) supported the previous view by opening that in most cases employees fail to
contribute significantly in the organisational decision making because of their skill shortage
but employee empowerment ensures a continuous employee development environment which
ultimately leads towards better employee empowerment. Al Manhawy (2013) inferred similar
to the previous findings by adding that total quality management allows higher employee
commitment and removes the ambiguity among the employees and management by facilitating
effective communication and all these result in higher employee empowerment. Al Manhawy
(2013) summarized that the main aspect of the employee empowerment is ensuring the highest
form of efficiency for the employees which in other word relates to higher employee
empowerment hence total quality management has a significant positive relationship with
employee empowerment and the study initiated by Sacks Radosavljevic & Barak (2010);
Psomas & Jaca (2016) confirms it as well.

2.8 Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework for this research study is below:
Figure 1: Conceptual framework for the study
Source: Author

This conceptual framework shows the aspects of the factors that affect the employee
empowerment such as the increased level of autonomy, higher flexibility, increased training
and development, consistent compensation, motivation and work environment contribute to the
formation of the consistent employee empowerment level in an organisation that ultimately
result in the creation of the desired level of the TQM for the pharma companies from
Bangladesh.
2.9 Conclusion
The underlying discussions highlight the fact that for employee empowerment their continuous
development and commitment are required which is the main concerning part of the total
quality management. The total quality management paves the way for consistent organisational
practice that ultimately results in a favourable environment for the employees having the
opportunity to foster their latent faculties. In brief, the literature review upholds the fact that
total quality management contributes significantly to employee empowerment.